THE 117 U.S. OPEN
TH
THE 117th U.S. OPEN
People get a rush from so many different
things. I get my adrenaline fix being a
part of the USGA Rules Committee for
the U.S Open. My 3rd U.S Open at Erin
Hills, Wisconsin was just a fabulous rush
as any of my previous 12 Majors. To be
one amongst just 19 Officials invited from
around the world, particularly when this list
features the likes of John Paramor, Andy
McFee, Mark Russel, Slugger White, Ron
Hickman, David Rickman, David Bonsall
and Stephen Cox to name a few, is about
the best gift one can get, particularly on
one’s, June, birthday! A lot was said in the
world’s media about how easy Erin Hills
was. I read one report which lambasted
the USGA for an easy course set up
leading to 31 players finishing in the red
and 133 sub pars rounds during the week.
Apparently, the last time such humongous
sub-par rounds were seen was back in
1990! There were more complaints that
the cut was applied at plus 1 when, in
the past winning scores were just about
par or slightly better. Someone was also
moaning about how Dustin Johnson won
last year at Oakmont with a 4 under,
whereas the winning score at Erin was 16
under.Meanwhile, the fact that the course
was a trifling 7741 yards seemed to have
been lost on a lot of people!
1 INCH OF RAIN AND NO WIND
The arm chair pundits also waxed eloquent
about how the almost no wind helped in
these low scores and had the wind picked
up, the boys would have been separated
from the men! Let me tell those doubting
Thomas’s - try hitting the 594 yard par 5
14th or the 637 yard par 5 18th in two,
with a 20 mile an hour wind (not enough
for you?) into your face! The fact the very
few made the green in two is testimony
to the toughness of the course! On the
Thursday night, Erin Hills received almost
an inch of rain though I saw no evidence of
it in reduction of green speeds, scuttlebutt
16 G o l f P l u s
JULY
had it that the greens were still rolling at
12.5 -13 on the stimp!!
STATIONARY REFREES
For the 1st time, the USGA discarded the
Walking Rules Official (WRO) concept
where each flight would be assigned 1 or
2 Referees to walk the entire round with.
Instead assignments to Referees
meant that each referee (sometimes 2)
would be assigned a spot on the course
(2 Putting Green or 18 Landing Zone) and
one would stay put the whole day or until
relieved. John Bodenhamer, Managing
Director of the USGA took great pains
to explain to us, at the Rules briefing
meeting, the rationale for this move and
the way the week unfolded, one could
find no fault at all, with this process. My
two stations, the 4 days, were on the 4th
putting green and the 14th drive landing
zone, where I saw some action.
RULES & RULINGS
On the Thursday, the pin position on
the 4th was challenging, so to speak!
Jonathan Randolph from Mississippi,
contrived to hit his ball over the green into
the lateral water hazard. The only option
from him was to drop a ball under Rule
26-1.c. The only problem was that, given
where the pin was (top right), the area to
drop the ball 2 club lengths no nearer the
hole was 2 inches wide from the red line.
He dropped twice after the ball rolled back
into the hazard and now was required to
place it where it struck the ground, the
second time. His efforts to place met with
no success and I had to lead him through
the process under Rule 20-3.d. He was
clearly nervous about the ball rolling back